Being a switch

A switch is both a locked member and a keyholder, on one account. You can have a keyholder of your own and hold other people's keys at the same time. Everyone else on CageCheck can pair with you: a keyholder can hold your keys, and a locked member can ask you to hold theirs.

• One keyholder at a time, like any locked member.
• Any number of people whose keys you hold, like any keyholder. On CageCheck they're called your subs.
• Two switches can hold each other's keys. That's two pairings, one each way round.

Become a switch

• When you sign up: under I am a…, choose Switch (a bit of both). See Create your account.
• Later: go to Settings, find Role, tap 🔁 Switch, then tap Become a switch. You can do this at any time: a lock you're in and your pairings carry on as they are.

To stop being a switch:

• To be Locked: first end the pairings (and cancel the requests) where you'd hold someone's keys. Your own lock and keyholder carry on.
• To be a Keyholder: first end your own lock and your keyholder's pairing (or cancel your request for one). The people whose keys you hold carry on.

Each pairing stands alone

• Your keyholder never sees anything about the people whose keys you hold, and they never see anything about your keyholder.
• Tasks, penances, powers, contracts, hard limits and calls all belong to one pairing. What your keyholder can do to you has nothing to do with what you can do to your subs.
• Ending one pairing never ends another.
• Your safety tools work in every pairing: your safeword, emergency unlock, pausing tasks and penances, ending a pairing, and blocking and reporting.
  • The 72-hour pause after emergency unlock is on your pairing with your keyholder only. Your subs' tasks and penances carry on.
• If CageCheck asks you to verify your ID or age, the people whose keys you hold can release themselves straight away while you do, the same as with any keyholder. Emergency unlock and their safeword always work. See If your keyholder is away.

Pair either way round

Your tab is Pairing (on a computer, it's in the menu on the left). To send a request:

1. Under Which way round?, choose:
   • 🔒 They hold my keys: the form becomes Request a keyholder. Choose what your keyholder can do, and any live penances that aren't okay, as any locked member does. See Pair with a keyholder.
   • 🗝 I hold their keys: the form becomes Offer to hold someone's keys.
2. Type their username after the @ and add a message if you like.
3. Tap Send request.

Once you have a keyholder, you can't ask for another. Requests you send from then on are to hold someone else's keys, and the page says so.

From someone's profile you can start either way round: Ask them to hold your keys or Offer to hold their key. Only the ways that are possible show. For example, if they're a locked member, only Offer to hold their key shows. The request form opens with their username and the way round already filled in.

Under Sent requests, each one says which way round it is: To hold your keys or You'd hold their keys.

Answering a request

Requests for you show on the Pairing page, under Requests for you:

• Wants to be your keyholder: tap Accept, then choose your live penance limits and what they can do, as any locked member does.
• Wants you as their keyholder: tap Accept to pair straight away. Their live penance limits show first.

Home

Home starts with your own lock: the timer, checking in, asking for a release. Under it is Your subs:

• Pairing requests from people who want you to hold their keys, with Accept and Decline.
• A request from someone who wants to hold your keys shows as a link to the Pairing page, so you can choose your limits and powers before you accept.
• Anything waiting for you as the Keeper or the Warden in the Game Center.
• The people whose keys you hold, each with what's waiting (photos to review, proof, a release request).

The Pairing page

• Your keyholder comes first. Under them are your contract, your hard limits, your live penance limits and Pause tasks and penances.
• Your subs comes next. Each one has Powers (what they've given you), Message, calls and End, and their contract.
• Find members is under them. You can browse Keyholders open to new members (while you don't have a keyholder) and Members looking for a keyholder.

Listings

You can list yourself as Looking for a keyholder, as Open to new members, or both. Each has its own switch on the Pairing page and lasts 30 days. Your note shows with both.

• Looking for a keyholder ends when someone takes your keys.
• Open to new members stays on as you take on subs. It needs a verified ID, as it does for any keyholder.

See Find a keyholder.

Everything else, both sides

• Your profile says 🔁 Switch. It shows your lock (if you show it), how many people's keys you hold, and your listings. On the profile of someone you're paired with, a chip says Holds your keys or You hold their keys (both, if you hold each other's).
• Penances has two tabs: Yours and You've given. More has Your lock and Keyholding.
• Games: in Squirrel Away you forage as a sub (Your stash) and decide as the Keeper for your subs. Trick or Treat has Your mansion and Warden. You earn Mystery Boxes for days in a row and can seal them for your subs.
• Achievements show a locked member's goals and a keyholder's.
• Challenges are open to you, as to any locked member.
• Messages with someone you hold keys with both ways say You hold each other's keys.